Slipping a hand under her t-shirt, she pulled a throwing star from her harness and flung the lethally sharp weapon at the troll. In quick succession, she threw another. The first sharp-pointed star sunk deep into the dark red skin of the troll’s heavily muscled neck. Blood gushed over the male's long-fingered hand as her adversary clawed at its throat. The second star hit the beast in the soft part of its flat nose, between beady, black eyes.
The trolls on the ceiling howled furiously, shattering the deathly silence filling the room.
Sarah did a sharp U-turn and dashed toward her mate. Shoving her hands under Nick’s arms, she tried to stand-up with him. She grunted and only managed to lift his shoulders off the ground. Fear smashed through her as she struggled with his dead weight.
She couldn't budge him. She cursed a rapid stream that would've curled a sailor's ears.
Earlier, she'd been too keyed-up and hadn't noticed being weaker. Whatever blocked access to the synth in her blood also drained her of strength. She grabbed his arm and pulled. He moved a few inches. Digging her feet into the floor, she strained against his weight. He slid backward toward the honeycomb, inch by inch.
Terror filled her and for the first time in her life, she felt completely helpless.
She mentally screamed for Mac, knowing after the explosion, he had disobeyed her orders and entered Dragon Valley, remaining in the nearby forest in case she needed him. He couldn’t teleport to her side, but he could fly straight through the thick walls of the cavern.
____________
Several miles from the original attack, Mac followed a female gnome and her pack of trained trolls. They had picked-up the girl and headed toward the nearest gateway, a rarely used portal within an hour walk of Blue Bertha.
He snarled under his breath. He hated trolls.
The entire species spelled trouble. Trolls created a true menace wherever they nested. Not only were they dangerous, the blasted things bred like rabbits, growing to full maturity in less than a year. They weren't sentient, but they moved in packs, and like many Sídhí animals, they were smart enough to set traps for the unwary.
In the mundane world, people watched-out for poisonous snakes and grizzly bears while hiking or camping. Across the numerous Sídhí valleys, trolls fell under the same warning. Troll attacks killed more than a hundred people every year.
He followed the pack of blue-skinned mountain trolls as they entered the gateway. On the other side of the portal, he was surprised to see the ruins of a large castle. Mountains encircled the area.
Skirting the tumble of gray stone, the trolls passed a second troop of trolls.
“Trolls, you stops moving! Sits!” ordered the gnome handler for the second set of trolls, squeezing a small transmitter toward the hulking creatures.
A large male threw back his horned head and roared, fighting the order.
“Sits! Sits!” the little gnome screamed, punching the large, red button in the middle of its remote control.
Grunting in pain, the second set of trolls dropped to the ground as sun glinted off the smooth, red hide of the cave trolls. Black, curled horns hit the dirt as the creatures shuddered under the electronic assault.
Mac had wondered how the small gnomes kept the brutes in line. Trolls had very sensitive hearing. More than likely, each troll was fitted with an electronic device embedded in their ear canal, one that emitted soft and harsh frequencies.
He had heard of the training technique but had never seen it in action.
“Banie, your Nester mess up. He mess up bad, bad,” the second gnome shouted to the pallid skinned female Mac had been following. “He losses Mistress’s prize. Angry Mistress was! Smoke from nose angry!”
Ignoring the heated remarks flying between the two gnomes, Mac followed the dirt path around the destroyed castle. Before long, he found a large metal building. A tiny, bar-covered window graced the front door.
Next to the building stood hundreds of ten-by-ten foot, steel pens anchored into the ground with cement. A half-dozen green, mottled swamp trolls stood inside the nearest pens. A flock of crows passed overhead, starting a chain reaction of guttural, hyena-like cries.
The door to the yellow building popped opened. “Quiets! Stupid trolls! Buggsie likes quiets when he listens to Mistress on phone. Quiet makes thinking better!”
Hurrying forward, Mac slipped through the open door before it had time to shut. Since he was In Between, he could’ve just as easily walked through the walls, but over the years, he had learned to be cautious. You never knew who or what might be on the other side.
One time, a few years before, he had walked through a wall and ended up lost inside a mountain. As long as he stayed In Between, he had been okay, but if he had shifted into one of the real dimensions, he would’ve been smashed to goo amid tons of solid rock.
Shuddering at the memory, he turned his attention to the interior of the building. White walls and brilliant florescent lighting greeted him. The front of the building was wide open.
The large area spread before him. To his immediate right, a large Khr’Vurr recruitment poster promised a better future. A fiery red and gold infinity symbol branded the black silhouette of a dragon in flight.
Torture equipment, from knifes to whips, filled the front third of the building. The back of the building was not as pleasant. Three aisles, at least fifty feet in length, filled the rear of the building. Cages lined each cement passage.
“Nork, stops beatin’ that cadet. Lee tagged the last cadet and needs pick-up. You takes the swamp trolls and hurry! Mistress could be here anytimes!”
Well, that explained the young girl Guardian Lee attacked. What Mac didn’t understand was why the guardians had placed dragon cadets in a restricted part of their campground area in the first place.
Hoping to catch the mysterious Mistress, Mac settled against the front wall.
Chapter - Trolls!
Silence answered Sarah’s scream for help. The mite poison didn’t block short-range telepathy, but the poison must short-circuit her ability to send a long-distance call.
Brianna appeared next to her.
Sarah bared her teeth at the girl, but the teen surprised her by grabbing Nick's other arm. Together, they managed to pull him toward the honeycomb.
A troll dropped to the ground and then another and another. One landed five feet away, nearly blocking their path to the honeycomb.
Sarah flung one of the lethal shuriken, stopping the troll as the sharp point of the star ruptured the troll's right eye.
The creature howled in agony. Clawing at its face, the big troll dropped to its knees.
A smaller troll – only about six feet tall – ran forward and slammed both clawed feet into the injured troll. The smaller monster hopped on top of the flopping body, shrieking in triumph before it ripped into the fallen body with its square-shaped jaws.
Brianna scrambled into one of the glowing tubes, pulling Nick by his arms.
Sarah grabbed his hips and grunted as she tried lifting his bulk. Normally, she loved the fact he was several inches over six feet and had muscles that rippled when he walked, but not now. Muscles meant weight. Why couldn't he have been a scrawny five footer?
She ducked under his body. Her head popped up between his legs, in a position she'd only dreamed of being in. She didn't have time to enjoy the view. She lodged her shoulders under his thighs and pushed, straining her leg muscles. His body shot forward and she scrambled into the hole after him.
Brianna squealed, helplessly clawing the smooth walls of the tunnel. Her frantic efforts didn’t stop her backward movement down the slick tube.
Sarah jumped forward, landing with a grunt on Nick's chest.
His hunter-green eyes snapped open, looking at her in shocked disbelief. Well, at least he was finally awake.
They slipped backward, moving faster with each second that passed. Wind ruffled his hair. He opened his mouth, but no words emerged.
The laughing-howls of the trolls fo
llowed them as they sped backward down the crystal tunnel. Looking up, she gazed into dark green eyes that brimmed with emotion.
Her breath caught, fearing to hope.
His arms slipped around her back, pulling her closer, holding her snug against his chest. His entire body shuddered, before he finally spoke. “Hurt?” he managed to ask, swallowing several times.
She knew from experience, the mite poison left his mouth dry as cotton.
Incapable of speech, she shook her head no.
He ran his hands down her back as if making sure her unspoken answer was true. His fingers found a hole in her shirt and he paused, gently touching her bare skin. The healing skin remained puckered from the mite’s thick stinger.
A wave of yearning swamped her. On impulse, she dropped her face next to his, gently rubbing her cheek against his. She shivered.
His soft, rumbling purr sounded beneath her.
The laughing-howls of the trolls disappeared.
“It’s splitting!” Brianna squealed.
Looking past Nick’s head, she watched the girl scramble toward the left tunnel.
“We need to remain together,” Sarah said calmly, angling hers and Nick’s body toward the left tunnel. Losing sight of the girl – and the young phoenix’s uncomfortable questions – was no longer an option, not after she helped save Nick’s life.
Sarah glanced down the right-hand tunnel, unable to stifle a hiss of frustration. The etchings continued down the right tube, not the left one.
A few minutes after shooting through the left tube, holes began opening along the sides and top. Liquid crystal trickled through each opening. The tunnel began filling-up with synth crystal.
For a single moment in time, Nick tightened his hold on her. The brush of his lips were so soft, she nearly missed the fleeting touch across her cheek.
Surprised, she looked at him, but knew the gentle moment was gone.
As if in pain, his eyes clenched shut and he pulled his hands away from her. His purr stopped. Except for breathing and the forward movement of his body, he lay unmoving.
Sarah’s chest felt like he ripped her in half. His wretched clan honor was about to drive her insane. One minute he wanted her, the next he treated her like a trash-loving skrivett, the lowest of all Sídhí rodents.
Sarah clenched her teeth and rolled to the side, splashing into the cool synth crystal. She felt the power flowing past her. She was sick to death of Nick rejecting her every time she turned around and tired of running for their lives. Recklessly, she reached for the energy and touched nothing.
She growled in frustration and pushed every fiber within her, searching for a way around the blockage.
“What happened?” Nick asked.
Angry he refused her and angry over the mite poison disrupting her ability to touch synth crystal, Sarah glared at him. “Mites attacked us.”
She tried sitting up, but her hand slipped and she smacked into him.
Nick grunted as her body hit him. “That much I figured out. Where are the others? And where the blue blazes are we?”
“Oh, crap!” Brianna shouted. Her choice of curse words grew more colorful before she finished. “Do you hear that?”
Nick twisted his head, trying to look in front of them, toward the girl.
Sarah ignored his movements. Hearing a loud roar, she grew still and all the blood drained from her face.
Nick’s growl grew louder. “What’s that roar?”
If Sarah had not been right beside him, she would have never heard him. As it was, she didn’t have time to explain. “Waterfall,” she said grimly.
Brianna screamed shrilly as she shot out of the tunnel.
Seconds later, Nick and Sarah followed her. The massive chasm glowed with power.
Nick grabbed for Sarah, but her lighter body shot farther out into the open air of the vast area.
Sarah twisted her head around, seeking a possible solution. She started falling.
Of all the rotten, stinking luck, she fumed. She mentally screamed for Mac, but he still didn’t answer her.
She looked down, dreading what she would see. The massive river was made entirely of whitish-clear liquid, synth crystal, Dragon Valley’s primary crystal spring.
A spikey, white ceiling arched high above their heads. Several miles separated the un-scalable walls of crystal. Dozens of caves gaped along the jagged walls, dotting the entire length with massive waterfalls. Pure, liquid energy plunged into the deep chasm, creating a massive ocean of untapped power.
Stubbornly refusing defeat, she reached for the ability to control the synth crystal surrounding her, but the barrier remained firmly in place.
The instant they shot into the air, she watched Nick’s gaze latch onto her. He angled his body like a skydiver, trying to use the wind of their fall to maneuver closer to her. A second later, they plunged into the underground synth spring. The liquid surrounded her, tingling across her skin.
Surging upward, she broke the surface and gasped for breath.
Nick, right beside her, did the same.
His hand slid around her arm, urging her in the opposite direction. “Can you see it?” he shouted over the roar of the falls, nodding his head to something behind her.
She turned and saw Brianna swimming toward a ledge.
They struggled against the churning water and finally managed to reach the milk colored ledge. The smooth surface rose two feet above her head. She grabbed the curve of the ledge, but her hands slipped off.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nick go under.
Heart racing, she reached for him and missed.
His hands wrapped around her waist, and he surged upward, shoving her higher toward the ledge.
She grabbed the slick ledge and pulled herself onto the smooth surface.
Turning, she scrambled on hands and knees. Leaning over the side, she stretched her hand toward Nick.
Nick scowled at her. “Help Brianna up first,” he ordered.
Sarah curled her lips into a snarl. "No," she stated flatly, leaving her hand held out toward him, she held his eyes in a silent battle.
Murmuring softly under his breath, she almost didn’t hear him call her stubborn before reaching for her hand.
She closed her fingers around his and pulled. Immediately, she began sliding over the slick surface toward the edge. She tried to stop her forward momentum, but his weight was too much. Her grip began slipping.
Without warning, he released his hold on her and she sprawled backward.
“Now, help Brianna,” Nick said, glaring holes through her.
Sarah snarled and finally moved a few feet away toward Brianna. The girl's slender hands appeared on the edge as she tried climbing the slick wall.
Sarah grasped her wrist and pulled. They both slipped, but she succeeded in dragging the girl up.
Brianna knelt on the ledge for a few moments, coughing up what liquid she swallowed. She rasped her thanks.
Together, they reached for Nick and pulled. Every time they managed to get him partway up, he began slipping backward.
Finally, he hooked an arm over the edge and stopped sliding backward.
They paused, catching their breath.
Knowing they were at a standstill, Sarah reached over his back and slid her hand between his denim-covered thighs. “Hang on,” Sarah said in a growl.
She felt him shudder, growing hard.
“Sarah,” he said, groaning her name.
She curled her hand to the side of his private area. Clenching his inner thigh, she pulled as hard as she could. Suddenly, he slipped. She grabbed for anything to hold onto and pulled him toward her.
“Sarah!” Nick bellowed in a deep-throated voice, sliding over the rim of the ledge and into her lap.
____________
Nick ground his teeth together as another shaft of desire slammed through him. Hard as a rock, he groaned and opened his eyes to paradise.
His nose lay between Sarah’s pert breasts
. He shuddered and slammed his eyes shut. That increased his other senses. He inhaled. Her sinfully addictive scent, a heady mixture of heather and hyacinth, uniquely Sarah, swirled through him. Her scent intensified, entwining around the heady smell of an afternoon thunderstorm, fresh and explosive as the wind whipped through the trees.
Her heart raced as she released him ever so slowly.
Groaning with pleasure and agony, he pushed away from the one woman he wanted more than his own life, a woman that he could never claim as his very own lifeMate.
“Nick,” she said in that soft voice that went straight to his heart every darn time.
“Not now,” he growled, clenching his teeth so hard he feared they would crack. He jerked his body farther away from hers, relishing in the pain it caused him. That is, until he looked at her face.
Her flushed face lost all color and her eyes filled with moisture. His soul cringed as the pain of his rejection flitted across her face. She blinked rapidly, destroying the trace of weakness.
Her trembling lip lifted in a snarl. Jumping up, she stalked away, following the narrow ledge as the path ran along the base of the crystal cliff.
He released a pent-up hiss.
Even furious, Sarah was the most exquisite female he had ever laid eyes on.
Hours later, Sarah’s long legged stride slowed to a halt. Head tilted upward, she looked at the glowing script etched around the entrance of a wide tunnel. The odd opening was the only break in the massive cliff wall.
Nick prayed the solitary tunnel led to the surface. If it didn't, they were stuck in the crystal chasm.
"You think it goes to the surface?" Brianna asked worriedly, echoing his thoughts.
Sarah remained silent, ignoring him and Brianna as she walked into the tunnel.
"Hope so," Nick said, following Sarah down the tunnel.
The thirty-foot cylinder of synth crystal slowly narrowed to twenty feet then ten feet. Gaping holes appeared along the wall. He had no way of knowing, but he had a feeling that if they had aimed for the right-hand tunnel they would have ended up here instead of the synth spring.
Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 Page 7
